geitare - gay celeb

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Since I have been away from Japan for many years, the Internet is important for me to keep in touch with what's going on in Japan. I sometimes go back to visit my family in Japan but I need to watch television daily to keep up with constantly changing Japanese pop culture. Well, I love pop culture anyway, so I never feel I 'need to' watch them, though. :) I'm more addicted to it . . .

There are some big changes in Japanese pop/TV culture that I noticed over the past several years. One is Korean culture has become so popular among the Japanese -- especially among middle-aged Japanese women. They are crazy about Korean actors and soap opera that they star. I don't see much difference between Japanese and Korean actors, though . . . Have I been washed out in the U.S.?! I remember when living in Japan I noticed more subtleties of Asian faces . . .

Those Japanese housewives say Korean guys are so macho and sexy compared with Japanese guys. I know there're Korean specific genes and high-cheek bone is characteristic to Korean gene stock. But I don't think there are that big difference between Japanese and Korean faces given that there were Korean immigrants to Japan since ancient times. If you think you can tell differences among different Asian nationalities by faces, please take a test here at All Look Same. You may be surprised.

Korean celebrities

Second is that there are so many gaitare (gaijin celebrities) on Japanese television. Gaijin means foreigners in Japanese. Even when I was growing up in Japan in the 80's and 90's, there were white celebrities, African comedians, Chinese singers, and the like. What I remember are Kent Delicut and Kent Gilbert, former Mormon missionaries who came to Japan and became celebrities. My ex boyfriend (American) told me that he has seen Kent Gilbert in nichome (the biggest gay district in Tokyo), though Kent was married a woman then . . . Oh well, he's Mormon.

Kent Delicut

Kent Gilbert

These gaitare spoke pretty good Japanese but none of them were native Japanese speakers so they had strong accent. BUT in the past few years there're so many gaitare who commands excellent Japanese. Some like Pakkun (Patrick Harlan), a Harvard graduate who has become a famous comedian in Japan, speaks perfect Japanese though he learned it in school. I almost couldn't believe he was not raised in Japan. His Japanese is that perfect (and cute but married a Japanese woman! boo hoo).

There are more gaitare who speak perfect Japanese. Joy is a half-Japanese, half-English so it's natural that his Japanese is perfect. Becky is a female counterpart of Joy.

Bobby Ologun, a Nigerian comedian, speaks pretty good Japanese too. He's not a native speaker but he even makes smart Japanese jokes. Maybe his wife is smart and teaching him those jokes . . . but he's smart for sure.

My favorite program 5jini muchuu has many gaitare who are very fluent (some are native) Japanese speakers. My favorites are Jonathan Sieger and Paul Mare.

Jonathan is a second son between an American missionary father and a Hollywood actress Virginia Ann Lee (spell?). Jonathan was born in Taiwan and grew up in Gumma near Tokyo. What makes me laugh about him is that Jonathan makes fun of himself by mentioning that he can't speak English. Is it possible that a white guy who has American parents cannot speak English? I think Jonathan is trying to create a niche market for him among gaitare on Japanese TV. There are so many international celebrities who mastered Japanese language, so Jonathan is attempting to differentiate himself from other gaitare, maybe. It's well known that the Japanese feel so inferior to English speakers because so many Japanese cannot speak or understand English after studying more than 6 years at school. Hearing an American guy saying, "My resolution for this year is to be able to speak English" in perfect Japanese would definitely comfort Japanese audiences. How smart, Jonathan.

Paul was born in France but grew up in Tokyo, so his Japanese is perfect as well. Though he sounds like a Japanese, his critical comments and attitude is so French. I like that, though. Paul reads some news and weather forecast on Monday when Matsuko Delux is a panelist. Paul says that Matsuko asked him more than once to show his private area to take a picture of with her cellphone camera. Is is a joke or is she serious?

Matsuko Delux

Last but not least, a noticeable difference on Japanese TV is that there're more and more gay and transvestite celebrities. Matsuko is an example, but there are many more. Probably the oldest one is Akihiro Miwa. Then gay twin brothers Osugi and Piiko have become famous in the 70's. They are still popular.

Akihiro miwa

Osugi & Piiko

More recently Ai Haruna, a trans-sexual, has become famous. She's funny. She also won the "Miss International Queen 2009" which is a transsexual beauty pagent in Thailand. 

Haruna Ai

Kabachan is also an openly gay celebrity.

Ikko, a make-up artist, appears on television a lot too. 

These effeminate and/or transsexual/transvestite celebrities (like Rupaul) are all over on Japanese TV. I think women like to watch them and Japanese men don't mind watching them either. Such accepting atmosphere to transvestite/transsexual may come from traditional kabuki culture where only men are allowed to play female characters. 

I have watched Ikko on a show in which several gay specialists from fields of  fashion, make-up, hair styling, and cooking transform common women. Sounds familiar? I thought so too. The program mimics Queer Eye for the Straight Guy obviously.

But where are other gay guys who are not transsexual or transvestites? Amon Miyamoto comes up in my mind but he's not that butch. 

Amon Miyamoto

There's a rumor that a former fashion model Toru Kazama is gay. But I can't think of any other straight-acting gay Japanese celebrities. In the U.S. a former baseball player Billy Bean came out. Neil Patrick Harris and Lance Bass are good ones too.

Toru Kazama

Billy Bean

There are so many geitare (gay celebrities, not gAi tare that I mentioned earlier), but there're so few butch ones. I think Japanese audiences are used to watching stereotypical gays, i.e., effeminate, transsexual, transvestite ones, but not straight-acting gays. I hope over the next few years butch gay Japanese celebrities come out!

P.S. On a well-known message board called 2 channel, an anonymous person posts the following Japanese celebrities as gay or bi. Some of them have been married (and most of them are straight-looking). I'm not sure about credential of this list. This might be a 'wish list' by Japanese gays.

Daisuke Asakura
Akira Asada
Hiroshi Abe
Ryou Iketani
Takao Oosawa
Yuuji Oda
Toru Kazama
Gou katou
Haruhiko Katou
Taishuu Kase
Takeshi Kaneshiro
Kensaku Kisida
Kai Shishido
Kazuhiko Nishimura
Hideaki Takizawa
Minoru Tanaka
Ken Takakura
Tsuyoshi Doumoto
Toru Nakamura
Yukio Nagasawa
X-GUN Nishio
Kentarou Haneda
Kikuzou Hayashiya
Kiyoshi Hikawa
Tsubasa Fukuoka
Masaharu Fukuyama
Pool bit boys
Tetsuya Bessho
Noriyuki Makihara
Kin'ichi Mikawa
Ryousuke Miki
Amon Miyamoto

秋のイケメン

アメリカでも秋の番組改編が大幅に行われていて、新作テレビドラマがどしどしコマーシャルされてる。その中で気になるイケメンが二人ほどいたのでご紹介。

Alex O'Loughlin（左）とJames Wolk（右）。



Alex O'Loughlinは、昔のドラマのリバイバル、Hawaii Five-Oに主演。身体がいいべー。なんか印象に残りにくい顔立ちだけど、身体が・・・涎。


今年封切られた映画で、ジェニファーロペスの恋人役してた人。



そしてJames Wolkはこのベビーフェースがそそる。


でもアメリカのテレビ番組も、視聴率が低調だと即、打ち切りになるからねー。イケメンたちが生き残ってくれればいいんだけれど・・・。

たら話

特段変わった動きのない一日。目新しい仕事募集の情報もなく、応募した会社からの返事もなし。新聞を読めば、円高の問題やら、長期化するアメリカの大不況の話でもちきり。

憂鬱な日々だけど、自分は人生の節目にいるんだよなぁと思い出してみる。長引く就職活動には不安になるし気落ちするけど、昔の仕事を思い出して辞めたいと思ってたことを考えたら、これって自分で選んだ道なんだなぁと気がつく。毎月給料が入ってくる安定した生活だったけど、特にエキサイティングなこともなく、キャリアも頭打ちで年だけ取っていく焦燥感に駆られてたことを思うと、今こうして自分の意思で会社を辞めて、新たな学位も取得して、もっとやりがいがある仕事を探している状況は、この大不況の中だけどラッキーだと思う。とりあえずまだ貯金はあるし・・・。

LAでの仕事を中心に探しているけど、SFのほうが仕事が多そう。LAはメディア系やエンターテイメント系の企業が多いけど、不況のあおりをもろにくらって売り上げが軒並み落ちてる。ここ1年でLAの大手企業は解雇もずいぶんとしてるし、全米の中でも不況の度合いがひどい。それに比べてSFのほうが活力があるみたい。やっぱベンチャー企業が多いからかな。それにSFって、いつかは住んでみたい街だったし。ジェームスも、いろいろかこつけて、SFに引っ越そう～と誘ってくる・・・。

先月引っ越してきたこのアパートも、数ヵ月後には出て行かないといけないという事情も、僕らが早々になんらかの決定をしないといけないことを後押しする要因。ランチを食べながら、ジェームスと、色々なシナリオについて考えてみた。もしSFに引っ越すことを決めた後、LAで仕事のオファーがあったら・・・。でもこういうことって考え始めたらきりがないんだよね。たら話は、たら話にしかすぎない。

SFといっても色々と広いし、アパートの家賃の相場もどれくらいなのかよく知らない。そこで、ちょこっとネットで調べてみた。そしたら、やっぱりSFのダウンタウンとかノブヒルとか、高級住宅街になると超超超高い。それ以外のところでも、ゲイのメッカ、カストロ地区なんかになるとアパートが古いのに高かったりして、やっぱ全米で１、２の物価高を誇るサンフランシスコだけはある。この不動産の状況だけでしり込みしてしまった・・・。仕事がないままこんな物価高のサンフランシスコに引っ越して、自分で自分の首を絞めることになるんじゃないか・・・。

そしたら、SF市内のとてもヒップでおしゃれな地区に、3ベッドルームに3つのバスが付いて、駐車場も込みの新規物件が2000ドル未満という破格な値段で賃貸に出されてるのを発見。この地区の相場の４割引。古いビルを改装したばかりだそうで、吹き抜けのリビングルームに、大理石のシンク、フローリングの床におしゃれな内装。。。しかも超広い！これってあり得ない・・・。SFのこんなおしゃれな場所だったら、3ベッドルームで月5000ドルの家賃っていう物件もざらにある中、これはあり得ないくらいの掘り出しもの。ジェームスに見せたら、「これってマンスリーじゃなくて、ウィークリーの値段なんじゃないの？」という疑問。僕も、もしかしたらそうかも・・・とまだ信じられない。でも、サイトによると、他のマンスリーの物件と比較して４割以上安い物件として紹介されてる。なにか裏がありそうな予感。（殺人事件の現場になったとか？もしくは、あのbedbugが出没するとか？）でも、もしこれがウェブ情報通りの物件だったら、まさにデモノ。

早速、この物件の所有者にメールで質問を出してみた。ジェームスも、これが本物だったら、借りるしかない、っていうすごい鼻息。「もし今日連絡が来てすぐ物件を見られるなら、明日にでもSFまで車を飛ばして物件を見て、即決断するからね」って、かなり乗り気。でも、確かに、こんなにいい物件は、これを逃したらそうそうなさそうだし。。。

また「たら話」になってしまったけど、もしこの物件がこの値段で賃貸可能で、僕らが希望する入居日で借りることが可能なら、僕ら、SFに引越しします。